- Commensal gut microbiota play an important role in colonic inflammation and colon cancer. The human gut flora consists of approximately 100 trillion microbial cells, which their disruption leads to many types of diseases including inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer. Recent studies have shown that colon cancer patients as well other patients with gastrointestinal cancers have an altered gut flora when compared to healthy controls. As an example, intestinal microbiome has been shown to contribute to the start and progression of certain kinds of liver diseases such as NAFLD as well as end-stage liver diseases1-3 Therefore, it is important to investigate further as to how the gut affects the patient s response to chemotherapy, other types of cancer therapy and to tumor growth in general.